The Future of Work Is Not What You Think - Part I

"Technology is going to be very important but I always try to remind organizations that technology is a means to an end. It's not the end itself. What really differentiates over time is the human factor. It's the workforce. It's this idea that innovation and creativity, which is at the heart of the human dynamic. That's what really makes the difference. The technology flows from that."

Adm. Mike Rogers, Former Director NSA

Today we'll talk about the evolution of work. We are working people, we have always worked, and evolution doesn't skip over the topic of work. We'll try to understand what developments have taken place to date, and especially what's going to happen from now on in this COVID period and the new business era.

We see that the world of work is undergoing evolutionary processes. And we saw that long before the pandemic, and actually without any connection to it. There are very many professions becoming extinct over the years, and new professions that were not there before will come in their place. But in our current state we'll have a hard time imagining how all this will play out.

For example, as a child growing up in Canada I still remember the milk man who would drive by every morning in his big truck and leave a few bottles of milk, eggs and butter on our doorstep. Of course many of these types of jobs have disappeared from our world. There are many other jobs that were once professions, but today are extinct, and new professions have come in their place.

There are very many professions becoming extinct over the years, and new professions that were not there before will come in their place. But in our current state we'll have a hard time imagining how all this will play out.

According to the evolution of work, we can see how once upon a time there were more farmers, more field workers. We were working a lot more with animals and with the land. Gradually it all shifted to large machines, and from there to computers. And since the whole food industry is evolving we're already seeing the shift toward robotics and artificial intelligence. We've been anticipating this change for a long time. Now is the time for a new area of innovation, for us to create a new sector for developing our human social abilities.

We're really living in a very special period today, and all these shifts are also having a great impact on the world of employment. Even way back in 2013 Oxford University researchers were already talking about 50% of the employment areas we know today disappearing completely, and being replaced by other things.

The Economist: In 2013 Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne of Oxford University used—what else?—a machine-learning algorithm to assess how easily 702 different kinds of job in America could be automated. They concluded that fully 47% could be done by machines “over the next decade or two”.

What they did notice and highlight, is that roles requiring personal human abilities that technological can't replace, are those that will continue to evolve. We actually knew about all these things long before the pandemic.

So where is the future of work headed? What is the occupation or field that we should invest in? That will be worth it for us to study, and develop in it?

We have never really dealt with the connection between human beings. Most of the connections we have are with relatives, connections that exist from a natural attraction between a man and woman, a woman to her child, and man to nature - to things that seem good and beautiful to us. But now we need to focus on building good relationships between all human beings and life forms that do not depend on the good will that comes naturally from attraction, or our natural connection to our offspring. Now we need to build relationships in places where there is nothing natural pushing us to get closer to each other.

If in the past the service I had to provide was about showing up and presenting my skills, now there will be some new subtlety in the service that I will have to learn to give. It's called connection. Why is this so vital?

As long as we don't begin to feel that we must all be linked together in an optimal manner, we won't be able to build the systems we need for things to run smoothly.

This is about the new and improved connection we want to have between all human beings. As long as we don't begin to feel that we must all be linked together in an optimal manner, we won't be able to build the systems we need for things to run smoothly. Because the systems we'll need will be built on the principle that we feel everyone as close and connected to us, and that's the only reason we'll do business with them.

So in this new scenario we will be fully aware of the benefits of connecting with people who are very different than us - in status, background, nationality, mentality, education, age, gender, etc. Those are some of the external things that make us different. But when we factor in our thoughts and desires there is vast ocean of diversity between us.

How do we get the benefit? If there is a great distance between us due to any of the above or a combination of the above, then precisely because we're so different, we'll be interested in building a close relationship with them. Why? Because we have far more to benefit from connecting with people who we don't normally come into contact with. The bigger the differences, the greater the ability to get much more tangible results. Or in other words, the more we can leverage our human abilities and forces for greater success. This is going to be the main profession in the future.

The bigger the differences, the greater the ability to get much more tangible results. Or in other words, the more we can leverage our human abilities and forces for greater success. This is going to be the main profession in the future.

This is a fascinating process of moving from physical services we used to provide to each other, to services that are more mental, more subtle, more internal. The is precisely what the future services are really about - those intangible silver linings that we got so excited about at the beginning of the crisis. But then we forgot about all that and went back to "normal".

The formula of future services is very simple and it goes without saying that in any of our relationships, between humans, which is like two machines, and between companies, and all the billions of people in all sorts of ways they communicate -- from now on we'll want our actions to be of maximum benefit to all. Then we come up with a simple, optimal format. Because what is a person really looking for all the time? We always want the the best for ourselves. Every computer knows how to do this. We solve problems like this in mathematics as well.

Why is this the new math? Because in our interaction we don't act according to one person or the other's ego, but rather act according to the rules of the integral era. At the end of the day what comes down to us in our business, in our world, is that we're operated by nature that is integral. This is a whole new world that we need to become familiar with, and suit ourselves to it. Not each of us individually, but rather upgrade our connections to the perfect harmony of the integral world. That's what this new era is all about.